voice – Earlybirds Invest https://earlybirdsinvest.com Latest Crypto News Fri, 05 Sep 2025 02:43:06 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.7 https://i0.wp.com/earlybirdsinvest.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/cropped-New-Project-2024-12-17T235703.455.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 voice – Earlybirds Invest https://earlybirdsinvest.com 32 32 240146708 Philips Hue taps Sonos Voice Control in partnership for hands-free smart home lighting https://earlybirdsinvest.com/philips-hue-taps-sonos-voice-control-in-partnership-for-hands-free-smart-home-lighting/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/philips-hue-taps-sonos-voice-control-in-partnership-for-hands-free-smart-home-lighting/#respond Fri, 05 Sep 2025 02:43:06 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/philips-hue-taps-sonos-voice-control-in-partnership-for-hands-free-smart-home-lighting/

What you need to know

  • Philips Hue announces partnership with Sonos and its Voice Control feature, bringing hands-free assistance to users for their lighting needs.
  • Users can turn lights on or off with their voice, activate scenes, and alter the brightness and color temperature of devices.
  • Philips Hue also states this update, which will arrive in September, takes user privacy into account, meaning your voice never leaves the device.

Philips Hue is announcing a new partnership and future update that consumers can expect to improve their lighting experience.

In a press release by Philips Hue, the company announced that it has partnered with Sonos to bring its Voice Control to its selection of lighting devices. The post states this integration with Sonos Voice Control will give users the ability to “switch lights on or off, dim or brighten, and activate scenes with their voice.” Regarding lights, the email to Android Central earlier today (Sep 4) states users can adjust the brightness and color temperature of their Philips Hue lights with Voice Control.

This update will also bring smart plug control capabilities via mic-enabled Sonos products.

Philips Hue highlights a privacy-focused update between it and Sonos. The company states your voice is “processed entirely on the device.” It says what you’re saying is not sent to the cloud for processing and that there’s no “recording,” nor is an internet connection required to utilize Voice Control. Nathan Hart, senior product manager at Sonos, adds, “We built Sonos Voice Control to make controlling your music with your voice faster and easier than ever before, all with the privacy of your data staying right on your speaker.”

This update is looking at a September launch in U.S. English and French for users worldwide. However, Philips Hue states Voice Control will skip out on China, and it’s unclear if users in the region will see it in the future.

Sonos & Philips Hue partner


Carrying Sonos Ace headphones from headband.

(Image credit: Ted Kritsonis / Android Central)

Sonos had a huge update earlier this year, but for its Ace headphones for the home. The free update in June brought “dual listening” to users watching the same content at home on the TV. Sonos stated users could listen to the same broadcast as audio is “synced” for both parties, thanks to their Sonos Soundbar. Additionally, TrueCinema grabbed more “realism.” The company stated its Ace headphones can “understand” your environment to “perfectly tune” your audio.

Elsewhere, the headphones also grabbed an update for its ANC (active noise cancellation). Now, the Ace headphones will consider the user’s glasses, hair, and hat in “real-time” to better block out sounds that would take you out of your audio content.

]]> https://earlybirdsinvest.com/philips-hue-taps-sonos-voice-control-in-partnership-for-hands-free-smart-home-lighting/feed/ 0 56811 Does the voice assistant on the Galaxy S25 sound natural compared to Gemini? https://earlybirdsinvest.com/does-the-voice-assistant-on-the-galaxy-s25-sound-natural-compared-to-gemini/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/does-the-voice-assistant-on-the-galaxy-s25-sound-natural-compared-to-gemini/#respond Fri, 29 Aug 2025 09:39:18 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/does-the-voice-assistant-on-the-galaxy-s25-sound-natural-compared-to-gemini/

How natural does the voice assistant on the S25 sound compared to Google Assistant?

Best answer: Both Bixby and Gemini let you choose from a selection of voices, but Samsung’s virtual assistant doesn’t sound as natural as Gemini. You can, however, create a custom voice for Bixby using your own voice, but it doesn’t sound as good as the preloaded voices for Gemini.

Does the voice assistant on the Galaxy S25 sound natural compared to Gemini?

It became clear with the launch of the Galaxy S25 series that Samsung is putting more of its focus on Gemini and less on Bixby. As a result, Gemini was the default voice assistant on the Galaxy S25, which users could activate by pressing and holding the power button. It’s not surprising that Samsung has put Bixby on the back burner.

One of the reasons why Bixby continues to feel behind is that the voice assistant constantly reminds you that you’re talking to AI. That’s because it doesn’t sound as natural as Google Assistant or Gemini. While you can choose between several voices, they all sound robotic, and conversations don’t flow as naturally.

On the other hand, Gemini also has multiple voices to choose from, and they all sound very realistic, as if you’re talking to an actual person. This makes it easier to have naturally flowing conversations without feeling like you’re talking to a computer. This is one of the perks of features like Gemini Live, which lets you have free-flowing conversations where you can interrupt the assistant in the middle of an answer, something I can’t do with Bixby.


Gemini Live on the Galaxy S25 and the Pixel 9.

(Image credit: Brady Snyder / Android Central)

One thing that Bixby has that Gemini doesn’t is the ability to use your own voice as an option for the assistant, which you set up by reading a number of prompts to it. This allows it to capture your vocal intricacies and inflections. It works decently well, but it still sounds tinny and robotic.

Still, I prefer using Gemini over Bixby, and the voice is one of the reasons why Google’s virtual assistant is generally better.

]]> https://earlybirdsinvest.com/does-the-voice-assistant-on-the-galaxy-s25-sound-natural-compared-to-gemini/feed/ 0 55693 Amazon Explores AI Voice Ads Through Alexa+ Conversations https://earlybirdsinvest.com/amazon-explores-ai-voice-ads-through-alexa-conversations/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/amazon-explores-ai-voice-ads-through-alexa-conversations/#respond Sat, 02 Aug 2025 03:23:21 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/amazon-explores-ai-voice-ads-through-alexa-conversations/

Amazon is exploring the idea of including ads in conversations with Alexa+, its upgraded artificial intelligence (AI) voice assistant.

According to a report by TechCrunch, CEO Andy Jassy stated during the company’s second-quarter earnings call that ads could play a useful role as people interact more with Alexa+ in multi-step conversations.

Jassy noted, “I think over time, there will be opportunities, as people are engaging in more multi-turn conversations, to have advertising play a role to help people find discovery, and also as a lever to drive revenue”.

What is Blockchain? (Animated Examples + Explanation)

Did you know?

Want to get smarter & wealthier with crypto?

Subscribe – We publish new crypto explainer videos every week!

What is Blockchain? (Animated Examples + Explanation)

What is Blockchain? (Animated Examples + Explanation)
What is Blockchain? (Animated Examples + Explanation)

Alexa+ is part of Amazon’s strategy to improve its older voice assistant by making it more capable and easier to talk to. Millions of users already have access to it, and it is meant to compete with new AI voice tools from OpenAI, Google, and Perplexity.

Currently, Alexa+ is free for Prime members, who pay $14.99 per month for the membership. There is also a separate subscription option for Alexa+ at $20 a month. Jassy suggested that more pricing options may be added in the future, which may possibly include one that removes ads.

Until now, advertising within Alexa has been limited. Sometimes, users might hear a short audio ad between songs or see a product promotion on the Echo Show screen.

On July 28, Google introduced a new feature in the United Kingdom called “AI Mode”. How does it work? Read the full story.

Aaron S. Editor-In-Chief

Having completed a Master’s degree in Economics, Politics, and Cultures of the East Asia region, Aaron has written scientific papers analyzing the differences between Western and Collective forms of capitalism in the post-World War II era.
With close to a decade of experience in the FinTech industry, Aaron understands all of the biggest issues and struggles that crypto enthusiasts face. He’s a passionate analyst who is concerned with data-driven and fact-based content, as well as that which speaks to both Web3 natives and industry newcomers.
Aaron is the go-to person for everything and anything related to digital currencies. With a huge passion for blockchain & Web3 education, Aaron strives to transform the space as we know it, and make it more approachable to complete beginners.
Aaron has been quoted by multiple established outlets, and is a published author himself. Even during his free time, he enjoys researching the market trends, and looking for the next supernova.

]]> https://earlybirdsinvest.com/amazon-explores-ai-voice-ads-through-alexa-conversations/feed/ 0 50986 I use Samsung Voice Recorder to avoid this app’s premium plan https://earlybirdsinvest.com/i-use-samsung-voice-recorder-to-avoid-this-apps-premium-plan/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/i-use-samsung-voice-recorder-to-avoid-this-apps-premium-plan/#respond Sat, 19 Jul 2025 22:27:26 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/i-use-samsung-voice-recorder-to-avoid-this-apps-premium-plan/
Galaxy S24 Plus display flat

Ryan Whitwam / Android Authority

I can’t be alone in wishing I’d kept a journal over the years. I’d love to reflect on what I was up to on certain days 20 years ago and how I was processing it all. Other than a few batches of photos and my increasingly fading memory, the records of my various travel adventures have mostly been lost. And those were the exciting times — the humdrum days in between have been almost entirely condemned to the mists of time.

I don’t beat myself up about not keeping a journal because I know I wouldn’t have stuck with it. Having to sit down and write or type for 15 minutes in the evening would have fallen by the wayside pretty quickly. But recent advances in AI have made me rethink this. Now, belatedly, I’m journaling every day. It takes around two minutes before bed each night to do it via Samsung Voice Recorder, and I even realized I can use it to avoid the premium plan on one of the best journaling apps.

A tale of two apps: Voice Recorder and Day One

Samsung Voice Recorder and Day One Apps

Matt Horne / Android Authority

After upgrading to the Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus last year, I started playing around with the new Galaxy AI features. The AI transcription in Samsung Voice Recorder inspired me to use it for journaling. I’m aware that some Android phones have had live transcription features for a while, but I was particularly impressed with how quickly and easily Voice Recorder can both transcribe the voice notes after the fact and use AI to tidy them up.

This got me 90% of the way towards the plan of a quick brain dump each evening, but I was also wary of leaving the transcribed notes scattered about in an unordered fashion. You can arrange them in categories in both Voice Recorder and Samsung Notes, but what I really wanted was an organized journal setup in which I just dictate an entry, and it labels and stores it in an easy-to-reference way later. The simplest option was to use a journaling app with AI transcription baked in.

That left me with two imperfect solutions I could combine to meet my needs.

The Day One app fit the bill almost perfectly. It’s a polished journaling app popular on both iOS and Android that lets you log text, photos, and audio entries, plus it can sync across devices. The only snag was that, while the app has a free tier to record entries, you have to pay for the premium plan if you want to use the transcription feature. That left me with two imperfect solutions I could combine to meet my needs.

Now, each evening, I do the following.

  1. Open Voice Recorder and hit Record, then talk about my day for a minute or two.
  2. Stop the recording and save it, then tap on it and press Transcribe. A recording of that length takes around ten seconds to process.
  3. Tap and hold the text and select Copy all.
  4. Three taps to exit Voice Recorder, open the Day One app, and press New entry.
  5. Paste the text, and I’m done.

The whole process takes two to three minutes. Admittedly, the Galaxy AI transcriptions aren’t always perfect as I’m usually tiredly rambling into the phone. This isn’t an issue for me as I’m not planning to publish my memoirs. I just want enough to jog my memory, and it’s more than adequate for that purpose.

Am I in the wrong for not paying?

Google Play Store app next to other Google Apps stock photo

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority

For the record, I’m not against paying for premium plans on apps if they’re offering a genuine benefit — Duolingo is one example of an app that has certainly done well out of me financially. Day One is a great app, and I’d urge anyone who can benefit from the premium tier to sign up if it fits your budget.

In my case, I’m just minimally using the app while getting the one premium tier feature I need for free on my device. Almost all of the many premium perks would go unused if I signed up. At over $40 per year, I find that expense hard to justify. But I’ll let you judge my actions in the poll below.

Would you use a free workaround rather than pay for a premium app feature?

31 votes

This setup might not work for everyone, but it’s been a game-changer for me. I’ve finally found a low-effort way to keep track of my days, and it’s made me weirdly excited to look back at them someday. If AI is going to take over our lives anyway, it might as well help us remember the good old days when it was just a novelty.

]]> https://earlybirdsinvest.com/i-use-samsung-voice-recorder-to-avoid-this-apps-premium-plan/feed/ 0 48601 JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon Defends Plans to Charge Fintech Firms Fees for Customer Data As Stakeholders Voice Opposition https://earlybirdsinvest.com/jpmorgan-chase-ceo-jamie-dimon-defends-plans-to-charge-fintech-firms-fees-for-customer-data-as-stakeholders-voice-opposition/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/jpmorgan-chase-ceo-jamie-dimon-defends-plans-to-charge-fintech-firms-fees-for-customer-data-as-stakeholders-voice-opposition/#respond Sat, 19 Jul 2025 22:06:10 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/jpmorgan-chase-ceo-jamie-dimon-defends-plans-to-charge-fintech-firms-fees-for-customer-data-as-stakeholders-voice-opposition/

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is defending the bank’s controversial plans to charge fintech companies such as PayPal and Coinbase fees for access to customers’ account information.

In an earnings call for the second quarter of 2025, Dimon said that the fintech-fee decision was made to protect its customers when asked about the new policy.

“So, this is very important. So forget pricing for a second, we are in favor of the customer, but we think the customer has the right to if they want to share their information. What we ask people to do is, what do they – do they actually know what’s being shared? What is actually being shared? It shouldn’t be everything. It should be what their customer wants. It should have a time limit because some of these things went on for years. It should not be re-marketed or resold to third parties. And so, we’re kind of in favor of all that, done properly.

And then the payment, it just costs a lot of money to set up the APIs and stuff like that to run the system’s protection. So, we just think it should be done and done right. And that’s the main part. It’s not like you can’t do it.”

The fintech companies use the information to make it easier for their customers to send, receive and trade money. JPMorgan is reportedly poised to collect hundreds of millions of dollars in fees for the service.

Alex Rampell, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz and co-founder of the buy now, pay later business Affirm, is slamming JPMorgan’s move, warning it will make it more difficult to move money into crypto.

“This isn’t about a new revenue stream. It’s about strangling competition. And if they get away with this, every bank will follow…

If it suddenly costs $10 to move $100 into a Coinbase or Robinhood account – maybe fewer people will do it.”

Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of crypto platform Kraken, is criticizing JPMorgan for “asserting ownership over data that is generated by users but stored inside infrastructure the bank controls.”

“We should not be optimizing for defensibility through restriction. We should be leveraging our position and profitability to build better access, more open architecture and more composable systems. That means investing in protocols, not just platforms. It means participating in shared infrastructure, not just extracting value from it.”

Follow us on X, Facebook and Telegram

Don’t Miss a Beat – Subscribe to get email alerts delivered directly to your inbox

Check Price Action

Surf The Daily Hodl Mix

&nbsp

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

Generated Image: Midjourney

]]> https://earlybirdsinvest.com/jpmorgan-chase-ceo-jamie-dimon-defends-plans-to-charge-fintech-firms-fees-for-customer-data-as-stakeholders-voice-opposition/feed/ 0 48592 Trump’s attack on Voice of America, explained https://earlybirdsinvest.com/trumps-attack-on-voice-of-america-explained/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/trumps-attack-on-voice-of-america-explained/#respond Sat, 17 May 2025 02:37:08 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/trumps-attack-on-voice-of-america-explained/

This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here.

Welcome to The Logoff: Today I’m focused on the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine Voice of America, a US-funded news network that brings information to people around the world — including people living under repressive regimes.

What’s the latest? The administration fired about 600 contractors Thursday who work for the network, more than a third of the organization’s staff.

What about the rest of the staff? In March, the administration put almost the entire staff on leave, but they successfully sued to block those de facto firings, at least temporarily. Litigation is ongoing over whether the administration has the authority to cut the agency, which is funded by Congress.

Why is the administration doing this? Voice of America is, by law, editorially independent, meaning the Trump administration cannot control the network’s content. That means it sometimes publishes news that reflects poorly on the president or his policies — something this administration cannot abide.

What’s the big picture? Like any outlet, Voice of America has its shortcomings, and there are legitimate disagreements over how it covers the news. But for millions of people whose governments block access to the news, Voice of America and its affiliates are their best chance of learning about what’s happening in the world around them — including what their own governments are up to. Now, Trump is trying to take that away.

And with that, it’s time to log off…

Here’s an award-winning Voice of America story about what happens to accountability here in the US when local news organizations are driven out of business. It’s a great piece, but if you want to save it for a non-Friday afternoon, there’s always the glorious livestream of a bald eagles’ nest. Thanks so much for reading, and I’ll see you back here Monday.

]]> https://earlybirdsinvest.com/trumps-attack-on-voice-of-america-explained/feed/ 0 36666 AI deepfake perfectly clones ex-Binance CEO CZ’s voice, reigniting fraud fears https://earlybirdsinvest.com/ai-deepfake-perfectly-clones-ex-binance-ceo-czs-voice-reigniting-fraud-fears/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/ai-deepfake-perfectly-clones-ex-binance-ceo-czs-voice-reigniting-fraud-fears/#respond Thu, 17 Apr 2025 10:50:20 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/ai-deepfake-perfectly-clones-ex-binance-ceo-czs-voice-reigniting-fraud-fears/

Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, former CEO of Binance, stated Thursday that he had encountered an AI-generated video that replicated his voice so accurately that he could not distinguish it from a real recording.

The post, shared via X, featured an AI voice-over of Zhao speaking Mandarin, matching his facial movements with a precision he described as “scary.”

The video shows Zhao speaking in Chinese over a series of video clips, AI-generated content, and photos. Its fidelity renewed concerns around the unauthorized use of AI to impersonate public figures.

The incident adds to a growing body of cases where digital likenesses of crypto executives have been cloned using generative tools, sometimes for fraudulent purposes.

Zhao, who remains a prominent figure in the crypto industry despite stepping down as Binance CEO in 2023, has previously issued warnings about impersonation attempts involving deepfakes. In October 2024, he advised users not to trust any video footage requesting crypto transfers, acknowledging the circulation of altered content bearing his likeness.

Deepfakes and crypto: Increasing operational risk

The latest video adds a new dimension to impersonation tactics that have moved beyond static images and text. In 2023, Binance’s then-Chief Communications Officer, Patrick Hillmann, disclosed that scammers used a video simulation of him to conduct meetings with project representatives via Zoom.

The synthetic footage was stitched together using years of public interviews and online appearances, enabling actors to schedule live calls with targets under the pretense of official exchange engagement.

Zhao’s experience suggests voice replication has reached a comparable level of realism, even to the person being mimicked, raising fraud risks beyond social media impersonation.

In February, Arup’s Hong Kong office staff were deceived into transferring approximately $25 million during a Microsoft Teams meeting, believing they were speaking with their UK-based finance director. According to the South China Morning Post, every participant on the call was an AI-generated simulation.

Voice-cloning capabilities now require minimal input

Tools once dependent on extensive voice samples now operate with only brief recordings. Many consumer-level systems, such as ElevenLabs, require less than 60 seconds of audio to generate a convincing clone. The financial institution reported in January that over one-quarter of UK adults believe they encountered scams involving cloned voices within the prior 12 months.

These tools are increasingly available at low cost. According to threat intelligence briefings from CyFlare, turnkey access to voice-to-voice cloning APIs can be purchased for as little as $5 on darknet marketplaces. While commercial models offer watermarking and opt-in requirements, open-source and black-market alternatives rarely adhere to such standards.

The European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act, formally adopted in March 2024, includes mandates that deepfake content must be clearly labeled when deployed in public settings. However, the law’s enforcement window remains distant, with full compliance not expected until 2026.

Without active regulatory barriers, hardware manufacturers are beginning to integrate detection capabilities directly into consumer devices.

Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona featured several demonstrations of on-device tools designed to detect audio or visual manipulation in real-time. While not yet commercially available, these implementations aim to reduce user dependence on external verification services.

Mentioned in this article
Latest Alpha Market Report
]]> https://earlybirdsinvest.com/ai-deepfake-perfectly-clones-ex-binance-ceo-czs-voice-reigniting-fraud-fears/feed/ 0 31279 New very human-like AI voice model both excites and disturbs the internet https://earlybirdsinvest.com/new-very-human-like-ai-voice-model-both-excites-and-disturbs-the-internet/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/new-very-human-like-ai-voice-model-both-excites-and-disturbs-the-internet/#respond Thu, 06 Mar 2025 01:42:03 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/new-very-human-like-ai-voice-model-both-excites-and-disturbs-the-internet/

In context: Some of the implications of today’s AI models are startling enough without adding a hyperrealistic human voice to them. We have seen several impressive examples over the last 10 years, but they seem to fall silent until a new one emerges. Enter Miles and Maya from Sesame AI, a company co-founded by former CEO and co-founder of Oculus, Brendan Iribe.

Researchers at Sesame AI have launched a new conversational speech model (CSM). This advanced voice AI has phenomenal human-like qualities that we have seen before from companies like Google (Duplex) and OpenAI (Omni). The demo showcases two AI voices named “Miles” (male) and “Maya” (female), and its realism has captivated some users. However, good luck trying the tech yourself. We tried and could only get to a message saying Sesame is trying to scale to capacity. For now, we’ll have to settle for a nice 30-minute demo by the YouTube channel Creator Magic (below).

Sesame’s technology uses a multimodal approach that processes text and audio in a single model, enabling more natural speech synthesis. This method is similar to OpenAI’s voice models, and the similarities are apparent. Despite its near-human quality in isolated tests, the system still struggles with conversational context, pacing, and flow – areas Sesame acknowledges as limitations. Company co-founder Brendan Iribe admits the tech is “firmly in the valley,” but he remains optimistic that improvements will close the gap.

While groundbreaking, the technology has raised significant questions about its societal impact. Reactions to the tech have varied from amazed and excited to disturbed and concerned. The CSM creates dynamic, natural conversations by incorporating subtle imperfections, like breath sounds, chuckles, and occasional self-corrections. These subtleties add to the realism and could help the tech bridge the uncanny valley in future iterations.

Users have praised the system for its expressiveness, often feeling like they’re talking to a real person. Some even mentioned forming emotional connections. However, not everyone has reacted positively to the demo. PCWorld’s Mark Hachman noted that the female version reminded him of an ex-girlfriend. The chatbot asked him questions as if trying to establish “intimacy” which made him extremely uncomfortable.

“That’s not what I wanted, at all. Maya already had Kim’s mannerisms down scarily well: the hesitations, lowering “her” voice when she confided in me, that sort of thing,” Hachman related. “It wasn’t exactly like [my ex], but close enough. I was so freaked out by talking to this AI that I had to leave.”

Many people share Hachman’s mixed emotions. The natural-sounding voices cause discomfort, which we have seen in similar efforts. After unveiling Duplex, public reaction was strong enough that Google felt it had to build guardrails that forced the AI to admit it was not human at the beginning of a conversation. We will continue seeing such reactions as AI technology becomes more personal and realistic. While we may trust publicly traded companies creating these types of assistants to create safeguards similar to what we saw with Duplex, we cannot say the same for potential bad actors creating scambots. Adversarial researchers claim they have already jailbroken Sesame’s AI, programming it to lie, scheme, and even harm humans. The claims seem dubious, but you can judge for yourself (below).

As with any powerful technology, the benefits come with risks. The ability to generate hyper-realistic voices could supercharge voice phishing scams, where criminals impersonate loved ones or authority figures. Scammers could exploit Sesame’s technology to pull off elaborate social-engineering attacks, creating more effective scam campaigns. Even though Sesame’s current demo doesn’t clone voices, that technology is well advanced, too.

Voice cloning has become so good that some people have already adopted secret phrases shared with family members for identity verification. The widespread concern is that distinguishing between humans and AI could become increasingly difficult as voice synthesis and large-language models evolve.

Sesame’s future open-source releases could make it easy for cybercriminals to bundle both technologies into a highly accessible and convincing scambot. Of course, that does not even consider its more legitamate implications on the labor market, especially in sectors like customer service and tech support.

]]> https://earlybirdsinvest.com/new-very-human-like-ai-voice-model-both-excites-and-disturbs-the-internet/feed/ 0 23506 Google brings Gboard’s voice typing to the forefront with a dedicated toolbar https://earlybirdsinvest.com/google-brings-gboards-voice-typing-to-the-forefront-with-a-dedicated-toolbar/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/google-brings-gboards-voice-typing-to-the-forefront-with-a-dedicated-toolbar/#respond Mon, 10 Feb 2025 18:21:13 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/google-brings-gboards-voice-typing-to-the-forefront-with-a-dedicated-toolbar/
Gboard stock photo 4

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority

TL;DR

  • Google is rolling out an updated Assistant Voice Typing layout with the latest Gboard beta.
  • It appears as a new toolbar with a microphone button, a backspace key, and buttons to open the keyboard and change language.
  • The toolbar also suggests voice commands for actions you might want to perform when you stop speaking.

Google has started testing a new Assistant Voice Typing experience for the Gboard app with its latest beta release. The new voice typing UI appears as a toolbar above the keyboard that makes it easier for users to start and stop voice typing, minimize the keyboard, and view supported voice commands.

The new Assistant Voice Typing UI appears to be rolling out to some beta testers with version 15.0.03.717871796 of the Gboard app. It’s available on several of our devices and, as you can see in the attached screenshots, Gboard shows a two-page tutorial highlighting how it works.

In the new layout, the Assistant Voice Typing UI appears as a bar at the top of the keyboard. It has a microphone button featuring Google’s colors to the right that you can use to start and stop voice typing. It also has buttons to minimize the keyboard, return to the previous toolbar page, and view supported voice commands.

The space between the four buttons shows a “Speak now” prompt when Assistant Voice Typing is ready and listening for your commands or a “Paused” prompt when you hit the microphone button and stop voice typing. Additionally, the toolbar offers voice command suggestions in this space when voice typing is active and you stop speaking.

Gboard new Assistant Voice Typing UI 5

Rita El Khoury / Android Authority

When you minimize the keyboard, the toolbar replaces the minimize button with a backspace key and the ‘i’ button with a shortcut to reopen the full keyboard layout. As mentioned earlier, the new Assistant Voice Typing layout is currently available to a few beta testers. It could roll out to more users with a future update.

Along with the new UI, Google is improving Gboard’s Assistant Voice Typing experience with support for writing tools. We got our first look at the feature in a teardown of the Gboard app earlier today, which revealed six new voice commands that will help you rewrite texts with your voice.

Got a tip? Talk to us! Email our staff at news@androidauthority.com. You can stay anonymous or get credit for the info, it’s your choice.
]]> https://earlybirdsinvest.com/google-brings-gboards-voice-typing-to-the-forefront-with-a-dedicated-toolbar/feed/ 0 18655